Nancy Kaffer: The State of Michigan's absolute bonehead move on Belle Isle

5:36 PM, April 17, 2014

The State of Michigan, which now runs Belle Isle in Detroit, had planned to close the park for a private event — which is exactly the kind of thing feared by many who opposed the state leasing the island. / Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press

Here’s the best thing you can say about a state plan to close Belle Isle to the public during a high-tech automotive convention this fall: They decided not to do it.

It’s hard to say exactly when state officials realized they’d made a horrible, horrible mistake, but the light must have dawned sometime Tuesday, after a Crain’s Detroit Business reporter wrote a scathing blog ripping the state to shreds. Later that evening, a Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman told me that the department “realizes now” that closing the island was a bad plan, and that they’re committed to keeping it open during the Intelligent Transport Systems 21st World Congress, set for Sept. 7-11.

When I read that blog post, by Crain’s reporter Tom Henderson, it was difficult to believe that even far-removed state officials could be so clueless. And, to be honest, I felt personally aggrieved. For more than a year, we’ve assured Detroiters that leasing Belle Isle to the state would be a change for the better, that folks’ worst fears about outside appropriation of city assets were ill-founded at best, conspiracy theories at worst. As for the idea that state management meant Detroiters could be kept off the island, well, that just seemed ridiculous.

So the news that the state was planning to do just that was both deeply disappointing, and ... not that hard to believe.

The governor’s office and the state Department of Natural Resources were quick to point out that they had never signed off on such a plan — DNR spokesman Ed Golder noted that his department had no involvement in crafting this plan, and said it is the agency’s belief that the island should always be accessible to the public.

MDOT’s reversal was appropriately speedy. Rob Morosi, spokesman for MDOT’s metro Detroit region, said that the planned closure was never about who should have access to the island, but how to make the congress, which is expected to draw about 10,000 and will include extensive demonstrations of driverless cars, safe.

Morosi said that MDOT recognizes now that the Belle Isle Grand Prix, with about 100,000 annual attendees, is held without closing the entire island, and says the state is committed to meeting the same standard for this event.

But even contemplating such a closure shows that some state officials lack comprehension of the dynamics at play in the Detroit-Lansing relationship.

It sure didn’t help that the planned closure wouldn’t have included members of the Detroit Yacht Club, a lovely facility patronized by many Detroiters, or that the prospect of closing the island for one such event raised questions about how often it would happen. The whole thing came off as high-handed elitism, a nod to the haves at the expense of the have-nots.

Many Detroiters believe that Lansing would as soon leave the city to rot as extend a genuine helping hand — a perception fueled by ham-handed comments made with depressing regularity by legislators both from the metro area and out-state.

Just look at the legislative fight to put $350 million in state funding into a grand bargain with philanthropic foundations and the Detroit Institute of Arts, an $816-million deal that would soften cuts to Detroit retirees’ pensions and protect the museum, surely the state’s most valuable cultural asset.

It’s backed by Gov. Rick Snyder and legislative leaders in both houses. But some lawmakers have pushed back against the deal, resisting a “bailout” for Detroit, the state’s principal city (and let’s all understand that a lot of Detroit retirees live outside the city, in communities that would suffer if residents who are retirees saw significant drops in income).

The Belle Isle lease, which seemed like a no-brainer, became the subject of a years-long controversy in part because of the island’s symbolic value to Detroiters, but partly because of real fears about what, exactly, the state might do. Keep in mind, this is the same state government that’s cut revenue-sharing payments to Detroit and other cities. It was handled poorly from the get-go, with Snyder and former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announcing the deal almost as a fait accompli, without notifying the Detroit City Council that a lease (which required council approval) was in the works.

I still believe that state management of Belle Isle was the right decision. The state DNR runs a beautiful park system, and leasing Belle Isle doesn’t just take $6 million a year off the city’s books, it means funding for maintenance and capital improvement on the island. The annual park pass that visitors must purchase to drive onto Belle Isle also allows those motorists access to the rest of the state’s parks, all for $11.

Since the island became a state park, there have been notable improvements: Work crews are clearing brush and cleaning up, and State Police are warning that they’ll ticket folks on the island for things like speeding and alcohol consumption.

Golder says he hopes the work that the state is doing to keep Belle Isle in good shape, open and accessible to the public isn’t overshadowed by this episode. I hope so, too.

But the state has chosen to play ball in Detroit, and it’s important for state officials to understand the field they’re playing on. Results matter, but so does the perception of Detroiters. Officials in Lansing shouldn’t forget it.